A Nose for Nature -With an uncanny ability to detect elusive species in the wild, dogs are poised to play a vital role in conservation and biosecurity.

Ꮓiba seems to be the perfect colleague: hard-working, efficient and fun to be around. However, Ziba isn't a person; she's a conservation detection dog, especially trained to sniff out the presence of rare bats and birds. The sixyear-old German shorthaired pointer is one of an increasing number of dogs helping to conserve wildlife. Similar to sniffer dogs employed to detect drugs or explosives, these detection dogs are using their extraordinary sense of smell to identify anything from great crested newts to pine martens.

- By Alexa Phillips

Ꮓiba seems to be the perfect colleague: hard-working, efficient and fun to be around. However, Ziba isn't a person; she's a conservation detection dog, especially trained to sniff out the presence of rare bats and birds. The sixyear-old German shorthaired pointer is one of an increasing number of dogs helping to conserve wildlife. Similar to sniffer dogs employed to detect drugs or explosives, these detection dogs are using their extraordinary sense of smell to identify anything from great crested newts to pine martens.

Or, in Ziba's case, curlews. In the Antrim Hills of Northern Ireland, Ziba and her handler, Caroline Finlay, are spearheading a new trial with the RSPB to protect these totemic wading birds. The breeding population has fallen by 82% in the region since 1987, with an estimated 150 pairs remaining. There are a variety of reasons for that, one of them being that predation is quite high,' explains Dr Finlay. 'If we find their nests, we can put up antipredator fencing around them and that really gives them a boost.'

For the conservation team, spotting a handful of well-camouflaged nests over thousands of hectares of moors and farmland is an extremely difficult task-this is where Ziba comes in. Dogs' noses have up to 300 million olfactory receptors-compared with about six million in humans. In initial tests using fake nests, Ziba found twice as many as the human searchers. Their first field trial was carried out this breeding season. The welfare of the birds-as well as the dogs-is paramount. The team was given a licence by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, which specified that dogs had to be on a 16ft line and to clear each area within a short time limit, to minimise disturbance to the birds.